B.C. man charged with aggravated sex assault, kidnapping

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By Craig Babstock
Times & Transcript Staff

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Police have a man in custody after receiving reports of three attacks on women over the weekend, including one where a woman was beaten and raped.

Codiac RCMP Cpl. Mike Gaudet says police received three separate complaints about a man picking up women and attacking them over the weekend. One came early Saturday morning, one early Sunday and one early Monday.

Gaudet says they don't know if any other women were targeted.

"Are we just scratching the surface with these three cases? We don't know," Gaudet says. "Maybe no one came forward before."

The corporal says two out of the three cases involve women who are known to police to have worked in the sex trade at some point. However, information on the first two attacks is sketchy, so it's not known if prostitution was involved when those women were picked up by their assailant.

Investigators worked on the Saturday and Sunday morning incidents over the weekend, but weren't able to get enough information to make an arrest. Gaudet says it's not clear if either of those women were sexually assaulted, but one of them reported being kidnapped before fleeing her attacker's car.

One of the two women was picked up on the front steps of an apartment building at St. George Street and Robinson Street, while it's not clear where the other woman was picked up.

The third incident Monday morning is the one that brought police the information they needed to make an arrest. A woman showed up at the police station before 6 a.m. saying she had been beaten and sexually assaulted after leaving a downtown bar with a man.

"Members had a partial licence plate and vehicle description up to that point, but this victim provided a lot more information," says Gaudet.

Police were able to track down the blue four-door Cavalier and made an arrest. They believe the man who attacked the women was using his roommate's car.

Jack Wayne McKay, 44, appeared in Moncton provincial court yesterday afternoon facing three charges for the Monday attack.

He's accused of kidnapping the woman, committing an aggravated sexual assault by wounding her and robbing her with violence.

The woman, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, was in court yesterday to face the accused. Her face was bruised.

Gaudet says McKay is from British Columbia and only moved to Moncton within the last month or so.

Investigators are looking into his background, but Gaudet says they don't believe he's been charged with these types of crimes before.

Crown prosecutor Annie St. Jacques objected to McKay's release yesterday and also objected when he requested a five-day psychiatric assessment, saying there were no grounds for an assessment. The matter was set over until Friday morning for a bail hearing.

St. Jacques told the court more charges are expected as police investigate other matters. The car has been seized by police who are examining it for evidence.